PACIFIC
PALISADES, Calif. – Blue Devils Beatrice
Capra and Hanna Mar fell in the championship match on Sunday at the Riviera/ITA
All-American in Pacific Palisades, Calif. The 19th-ranked doubles team was
outlasted by the first-ranked Kaitlyn Christina and Sabrina Santamaria of
Southern California, 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-3.

In the
championship match, Capra and Mar dropped the first three games in the first
set before battling back to make it 4-1. Despite the slight change in momentum,
the Blue Devils would eventually lose the set by a score of 6-2 to the
top-seeded team from Southern California.

Duke
started the second set strong, and after trading games, Capra and Mar
eventually forged ahead to take a 4-3 lead. Christina and Santamaria fought
back to push the set to a tie-breaker, but Capra and Mar would eventually
prevail, 7-6(6) to push the match to a third set. In the third set, the Blue
Devils took an early 2-1 lead, but were unable to continue their solid play,
and were outlasted by USC, 6-3.

Despite
losing on Sunday, the match capped a successful week overall for Capra and Mar.
After playing only one match together last season, Capra and Mar are now 5-1
over their career as doubles partners, with wins over three ranked opponents
including a 8-5 victory over third-ranked Annie Goransson and Annett Schutting
of California in the second round.

In the
first round of the main draw on Thursday, Capra and Mar downed Ema Burgic and
Jordaan Sanford of Baylor, 8-6 before edging Goransson and Schutting, 8-5 in
the second round. In the quarterfinals on Friday, Capra and Mar cruised past
No. 21 Simona Synkova and Venoica Popovici of Wyoming, 8-2, then defeated 34th-ranked Brynn Boren and
Kata Szekely from Tennessee, 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the championship match.

The
Blue Devils are slated to next compete at the Intercollegiate Tennis
Association Regional Tournament Oct. 18-19 in Winston-Salem, N.C.